Congratulations to James for setting a blistering record for 100 Km on a Trike in the Male, 18-49 age group! This is faster than any unfaired bike type by any age or gender in our record books.
James Coxon 2023-07-08 Ride Report
The attempt took place at Newport, South Wales, UK at the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales. I wanted to do the attempt to demonstrate how fast a para athlete can go on a recumbent trike. The attempt started at 6:05pm in humid conditions. I started strongly and reached the halfway mark averaging just under 50kmh. However, soon the heat build up and constant effort of lapping on a 250m velodrome took effect, with the average speed beginning to fall. This really showed with 30 minutes to go, but I had enough of a buffer to beat my goal of 2hrs 5mins, finishing in 2 hours 3 mins and 58 seconds. For the attempt I consumed energy drink (SIS beta fuel) and managed to get in two gels.
This was the hardest cycling effort I have ever done, with my heart rate red lining for the last quarter of the attempt.
Official’s attempt report:
James Coxon 100Km record attempt.
At about 16:45 on Saturday the 8th of July, Dave Larrington and I met with James at The Garaint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales, Newport, Gwent. It is a 250m wooden velodrome, indoors and in good condition. On the night it was hot and humid in there. It is close to sea level. I am not aware of any barometric readings on the night.
We set up the timing system provided by Mike Mowett. It consists of a tape strip, which operates a debounce circuit, so only one crossing is recorded per lap. That operates a calibrated stopwatch which can record up to 100 laps, and makes a mouse click on a mouse positioned to update the lap counting spreadsheet provided by Mike. Dave had tested this system for 400 activations. The spreadsheet has an occasional glitch but corrects itself next time around. The debounce is switched to start or stop on the stopwatch for those laps and to record laps through the attempt.
The other timing system in use was the velodrome’s own MyLaps system, operated by Steve Miller.
We inspected James’s Oakley helmet. It does not contain a certification sticker, but the accompanying booklet contains the information. Photo enclosed. James wore a skinsuit and shoes with aerodynamic covers.
The machine is a Phantom carbon fibre recumbent tricycle built by Tim Corbett in Australia. It is a tadpole layout trike. For the most part the seat is the structure. It has wheel covers but no other no structural aerodynamic parts. A transponder for the MyLaps system was taped to the frame to the right of the rea wheel. He had an on-board drinking system with a tube. No hand-ups were required.
James warmed up on a trainer then did some laps.
Steve asked that James start 3m short of the line so he could see the transponder response and distinguish it from his start countdown. That first the response was removed, so James rode about 3m further than 100Km in the time. The backup system tape was positioned 3m back from the start line. James shuffled back and forth a little over and we had to reset each time. He ended up with the front wheels just in front of the tape, so it was triggered by the back wheel. The front wheels triggered it at the finish. I estimate the difference to be about 0.03 seconds at racing speed.
We put out standard foam pads around the track. James started on the blue band of the track and the pads were not in place on the first corner, to help him get to speed. Within a few minutes into the attempt, they were in place every 5 meters around the curves.
James started at 18:05. He went off very fast. He was scoring sub 18 second laps. He hoped he might be able to beat his own hour record as part of the attempt. After about half an hour he slowed a little and shouted to his trainer he was aiming at 205 – two hours five minutes. After 300 laps he was lapping at over 19 seconds. At 370 laps he was at over 20 seconds per lap. I encouraged his supporters to cheer him on. They did and for most of the remaining laps he recovered his pace to mostly sub 20 second laps.
The velodrome system recorded his overall time for 100Km as 2:03:58.908.
